greg928gts Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 When I was a kid, my mom bought a brand new Pacer. Anyone remember the TV ads? The pacer was driving down a runway, the kind of runway that models go down to show their clothing. Anyway, the Pacer is SOOO wide that it knocks the other models off the side of the runway. The car was cheesier than the ads. Anyway, the first week she owned the car, we were driving down a long hill heading home and the front left tire came off and rolled down the hill ahead of us! It wasn't just the tire, it was the whole wheel/brake/hub thingy that came off! Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Like Gary, I learned most of my mechanical skills from a 1959 Triumph TR3. Bought the car in '73 for $400. To be fair, the car probably had 300,000 miles on it when I got it. As a starving student, I had no choice but to learn how to work on it myself. Took a couple of JC autoshop classes. Fortunately, a TR3 is a pretty, stone simple, mechanically stout piece of kit. Over the years, it got "driveway" engine & transmission rebuilds and a "garage" paint job. Drove the car for 7 years and sold it for $4,500. Last summer I finally sold off the last of the Triumph "spares" I had accumulated over the years - brought a fair chuck of change! James I had a GT6+ for a couple years when I lived in Daytona. 2,8 litre straight 6 with 2 Stromberg carbs. It was a blast to drive, but always needed a little tinkering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 When I was a kid, my mom bought a brand new Pacer. Anyone remember the TV ads? The pacer was driving down a runway, the kind of runway that models go down to show their clothing. Anyway, the Pacer is SOOO wide that it knocks the other models off the side of the runway. The car was cheesier than the ads. Anyway, the first week she owned the car, we were driving down a long hill heading home and the front left tire came off and rolled down the hill ahead of us! It wasn't just the tire, it was the whole wheel/brake/hub thingy that came off! Greg I took Drivers Ed in 1975/76 and the cars we had were donated by the local AMC dealer. We had Gremlins, Hornets and Pacers. Whenever I see one of those cars or watch Wayne's World, I can't help but think of Boston's More Than A Feeling and Peter Frampton's Do You Feel Like I Do blaring from that Driver's Ed parking lot! Speaking of wheels falling off, my wife and I were going about 70 mph when the cotter pin broke holding on the wheel from my early 70s Beetle. We found it the next day almost a mile down the road in a ditch. I'd had so many car mishaps back then that I just turned to my wife and calmly stated, "Hey Honey, I think the wheel just fell off." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistedcrankcammer Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Another TURD for the list!! My buddy had an early 1980s Ford Zephyr with a 4 cylinder, he floored it for several miles down the hi-way, took about 5 miles but he finally got it up to 83 mph!! Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 i think it was the comedian Jeremy Hotz (my vote for the funniest man on earth) said that he had a Chevette that came with a trailer hitch. He figured that was so he could tow a second chevette for when the first one broke down. He also said the salesman told him that the chevette would "stop on a dime," he later found out that was because it couldn't make it over a dime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xki Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 It's a tie: AMC Matador or any Chrysler K-Car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom67 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 My 2007 company car Impala should be included....4 sets of tires in 20k miles and much worse....sad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 It's a tie: AMC Matador or any Chrysler K-Car. Wasn't there a 401 V8 version of the Matador that had some major muscle? I think they even used it as a police car for a while. Still, beefy or not, there was never an AMC vehicle built that was not a POS! Speaking of police cars, the other cars we had in Driver's Ed in the mid-70s were Plymouth Satellites. They were ex-cop cars painted over black but you could still see the emblems on the doors (also, those big side lights were dead give-aways). Those babies had some serious juice but the black vinyl seats were hot as he!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 You mean this AMC..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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